Short Attention Span Summary

Sepsis pit crewFor each hour delay in antibiotic administration in patients with sepsis, mortality rose 0.3%; 1.8% per hour for septic shock. This was a retrospective random sample of 35,000 sepsis patients from 2010-2013, including 21 EDs from a large northern California database. An idea that has been helpful where I work is to systematize "sepsis alerts" similar to STEMI alerts.

Spoon FeedOnce sepsis is detected, start broad spectrum antibiotics as soon as possible. Delays were associated with mortality: 1 hour = ~1%. There is some controversy surrounding timing of antibiotics in sepsis, but this is another bit of evidence that indicates sooner is better.